ABSTRACT
In what way could an area of studies be developed that would address the crisis of modern life yet not, in itself, be constructed as repeating or continuing the crisis? One major area has become known as cultural studies. As a contemporary influence, “cultural studies” has become an umbrella term for a host of theories and practices that attempt to challenge and surpass the various crises of modern life without assembling the same patterns and structures as those originally interrogated and dismantled. Cultural studies gathers under its umbrella several theories and practices; sometimes the distinctions between them are clear, at other times, blurred. The major theories under the rubric of cultural studies are deconstructionism, postcritical theories, postmodernism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, and now, postliteracy and postfeminism have joined the discussions and debates. Although each theory has distinctive features and approaches, there are common themes that thread through the discourses. The most foregrounded theme is power and how it plays itself out in the cultural constructions of truths, knowledge, discourses, history, literature, subject disciplines, and institutions. Inherited, perhaps, from Marxist and feminism theories, these “post” theories partner well with the dramatic arts as tools for interrogation and dismantling of cultural constructions that exclude, marginalize, silence, and operate in our everyday lives. Since there are excellent introductions and extensions to these contemporary theories in other books and journals, I will discuss only some of the key points of the theories. The task that remains is to connect
these theories to implications for theories and practices in the dramatic arts.
